


Of Peace and War

by teamchaosprez



Series: Of Reincarnations and Royalty [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Established Relationship, F/F, Kings & Queens, Magic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Politics, Sorceresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-10-25 02:45:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10755114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: Lapis Lazuli has just become the queen of the blue kingdom. She and her wife, Peridot, need to find some way to find peace with the yellow kingdom before tensions boil over and a war begins.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *clears throat and pushes glasses up nose* it's ok guys i listened to hamilton this week i know how to write this
> 
> this is the final book in the trilogy. you don't have to read of destruction and rebirth, but i would seriously suggest reading of magic and monarchies before you read this.
> 
> there are going to be some somewhat dark themes later on. this will most likely be my final long term steven universe fanfic, meaning just one-shots from now on, so i am not holding back. i won't tag them to avoid spoilers, but i will add a warning before chapters in which they happen.
> 
> the amount of planned chapters is subject to change. thank you for reading this series.

They had met in one garden, married in another, and now Lapis stood quietly as she was coronated as queen of the blue kingdom in a third.

The cottage where they stood belonged to a kindly old woman who had been happy to hide the long lost heiress and her wife for the moment, and Lapis’ hand held onto Peridot’s with all the force of a thousand strongmen. It had been less than twenty four hours since the news reached them that Blue Diamond had died, and initially the plan was to make it all the way back to the blue kingdom and have the coronation ceremony in the castle, but Yellow Diamond’s troops were poised to invade and it would be unwise to make a big scene about the new ruler with such a threat looming over their heads.

Much to both of their disappointment, a revolution to fix the current system had not come about; rather, Yellow Diamond had come up with one of her own to overthrow the other three kingdoms and merge them all into one. Pink and White Diamonds had come up with their own defenses, but Blue Diamond’s death had left the southern kingdom defenseless, and so Lapis Lazuli was needed to rush back and take the throne before the army could fall into chaos.

She had been raised to anticipate her coronation; to look forward to a vast festival that the entire realm would come to see, to know that she would be well into her life by then and that her children and spouse would celebrate with her in the castle, that she would be honored by any esteemed guests that had showed their faces. To say that she was disappointed that her coronation was a small, secretive ceremony behind an elderly woman’s cottage would be a correct statement if not for the suffocating fear that covered everyone’s mouths and made Lapis want to scream.

“Do you promise to put your people first, to ensure the safety and future of your kingdom?”

When she met Peridot, the night smelled of fall and of saltwater; when they married, of woods and of summer rains. Now it was spring, the scent from the flowers surrounding her sickeningly sweet and sending her already reeling head into an even deeper state of confusion. Lapis didn’t really know what to do with herself. She hesitated only momentarily before taking a deep breath and responding.

“I vow to be a good and wise queen, to put the security of my kingdom and my people before love, before blood, before my own life. I vow to raise suitable heiresses that will raise the kingdom up and keep our people happy, healthy, and safe for generations and millennia to come.” The words slipped past her lips effortlessly, smooth as butter and her voice surprisingly calm for someone who was in such a panic. Holly Blue Agate, the woman that ran the barracks and knew the coronation ceremony better than nearly anybody else, seemed impressed by her ability to keep calm, but said nothing of it.

Holly Blue nodded slowly, and turned to Peridot. She repeated the vows slowly, making sure that the spouse of the queen was prepared to be a wise and fair queen as well. Lapis watched quietly and with a sort of sadness as her short wife kept her chin held high and promised that she would do her best to help the kingdom grow, that she had given up any loyalties to her old country and that she was ready to stand up and benefit the blue kingdom.

Such easy promises to make when a revolution wasn’t going on. These were vows that all of Lapis’ ancestors had repeated since the nymphs had risen up and agreed to create the four kingdoms, but she doubted that they had ever been spoken so solemnly, even when her grandmother’s funeral had been moments before and her mother took the crown with a newborn babe in the crook of her arm. She doubted they had ever been spoken in the back garden of an old peasant woman and carried through by a nymph whose soldiers were notorious for how poorly they were managed, either.

The crown that had been taken from the blue castle just after the death of Blue Diamond was lifted, short words were spoken, and it was lowered onto Lapis’ head. It was lighter than she expected it to be, but the weight of the responsibilities she knew she needed to carry out crushed her head, would have made her shoulders droop if she didn’t need to stay upright and stay strong. She swallowed down a wave of anxiety, kept her breathing slow and deliberate,  and stood still as she was pronounced the queen of the southernmost kingdom of the sea.

The first queen to choose to continue being a Lapis Lazuli instead of a Blue Diamond.

The first queen to be put in charge of a looming war against the western kingdom.

Her mind was preoccupied by thoughts of how she would try to smooth out foreign relations before anything disastrous could happen. The thought of facing the queen that had ordered her torture made her sick, and she knew the fact that she was married to the former sorceress instead of the heiress she was almost betrothed to would make things sloppy. She could only hope that Yellow Diamond would know to be somewhat reasonable. Given her reputation, though, Lapis knew that was probably unlikely, and she would need to find some way to smooth things over soon…

For the moment, she allowed the ceremony to finish. There was no speech for her to give - no crowd to hear one. Things were tense, to the point that even many of her own people didn’t even know that they had a new queen outside of perhaps a few rumors. She would have to wait for the situation with Yellow Diamond to cool down a little bit before she got herself into giving royal speeches.

“It’s going to be okay,” Peridot whispered softly into her ear, their fingers still intertwined and a tight squeeze given to the palm of Lapis’ hand as they stepped down from the makeshift platform that had been created for them. “I know how Yellow Diamond works, I know how we can send diplomats and talk her into calming down. It won’t solve the tensions completely, but it’ll put off a war.” Her tone was reassuring, but the words made the newly coronated queen feel a little sick. Were things really so bad that she could only hope to prevent a war for the moment?

“I don’t just want to put off a war,” Lapis responded just as quietly, resting her head against her wife’s and letting out a heavy sigh. “I want  _ peace. _ I don’t want to have to deal with fights and war hanging over my head the entire time I’m ruling my kingdom. I don’t want the tensions my mother created to continue until our children are ruling and their children.” She clenched and unclenched her fist, trying to let out her tension without making it too obvious. She was trying to look strong and unmovable for her people, though the only ones there were an advisor, Holly Blue Agate, and the old woman whose garden they were in.

“I don’t know if that’s even possible with Yellow Diamond still alive, or with Jasper around, for that matter. Killing both of them would make things explode, because the yellow kingdom is very proud of their royalty.” Peridot was frowning, green eyes watching her wife searchingly - Lapis could almost feel the worry emanating from her, knew that she looked exhausted, knew that it would be almost excessively difficult for her to catch up with any sort of rest after this. “Even if they’re toxic people, they’ve successfully manipulated everyone into thinking they’re the best, and even the soldiers who have broken free from it are violent enough that they don’t care.”

She wasn’t going to say it out loud, but the yellow kingdom sounded like a dystopian future, and she couldn’t imagine how her wife could have lasted so long there. Lapis took a small breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, leading Peridot to a bench that rested beside a fountain as soon as they were given the okay to move. Normally, there would be a big party with all the other kingdoms to celebrate the new queen and the continuing of the blue kingdom’s legacy, but not this time. This time, it was just the two of them left to watch as the makeshift stage was cleaned up and wait for a small dinner to be ready.

The freshly coronated queen closed her eyes in relaxation as she lowered herself to lay down, resting her head in Peridot’s lap and not really caring if she looked less than regal to the advisor. She had just lost her mother, never even having gotten the chance to say goodbye because she was too busy hiding from the very queen that they were supposed to play nice and get along with now - she figured she was allowed to have a couple of moments to behave like the teenager she had been a decade ago and let herself get used to everything happening now. Lapis let out a soft sigh, and Peridot gently ran her fingers through her short hair.

“I’m not going to be a suitable queen. I never got the chance to really learn how to run a kingdom. I couldn’t go with even the most basic of arrangements to make sure that my people would get the peace that they deserved.” She hid her face behind her hands, like that would help her in any way. “I just don’t know what to do, Peridot.”

“I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do.” The caster responded in a stern tone that Lapis had only heard a few times in the years that they had known one another. “You’re going to ride into that kingdom tomorrow and announce that the queen has arrived, and you’re going to do your best to seek out peace for everybody. You’re going to make it up as you go along, just like you’ve done every moment of your life so far, and you’re going to do a good job, like you’ve done in almost everything. And I’m going to be with you every step of the way.”

A little surprised by the confidence that her wife had in her, Lapis was a little bit overwhelmed, and had to swallow down a wave of tears. She didn’t think that she deserved it, but she didn’t have much of a choice - it didn’t matter if she was reluctant, it didn’t matter if she was having issues, all that mattered was that she suck it up and go run her kingdom like a big girl.

“Thank you,” she managed in a hoarse whisper, sitting up so that she could wrap her arms tightly around her wife; Peridot returned the embrace almost a little bit stronger, and Lapis rested her chin on the top of the younger woman’s head. She was glad that she had the sorceress with her; she was glad that they were together and their relationship was strong and unwavering. It was probably the  _ only _ thing about her that was strong and unwavering at this point.

Peridot shifted in order to get to her feet, and even though she wanted to just stay there in that simple moment forever, Lapis let go and moved so that her wife could get up and help her to her feet. “Now come on, let’s make sure we’re all ready to get going. We have a long day to get through tomorrow, and we might as well get started on making your announcement up before dinner because we sure as hell won’t want to right before we go to bed.”

Lapis nodded, and allowed the younger woman to tug her into the cottage where they had been staying the last few days. She might not have had a lot of confidence in herself at the moment, but she knew that she would have Peridot close to her every step of the way, and she knew that her people needed her and probably believed in her. She supposed that was enough to get her through whatever life thought it necessary to throw in her face.

She could only hope that they wouldn’t fault her for abandoning them to save her own life, but she would find out about that in the morning, she supposed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The question remains: what did they miss?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was supposed to be up last night but i may or may not have accidentally played tf2 for two and a half hours

The castle was, thankfully, unchanged, at least from the outside. Lapis looked around the grounds, a dark hood secured around her head so as not to make the citizens of the kingdom realize that their princess had come back and to not make a fuss. Her return would be announced in a more official manner as soon as everything had settled and she had been briefed on what she had missed and what the current situation was; the queen wasn’t very happy about being hidden from the people whose lives were in her hands, but she was inexperienced and was willing to go along with the people who had been there and had worked closely with her mother in the decade that she had been gone.

It was late at night when she and Peridot were ushered into the castle, mostly to avoid drawing attention to either of them due to the villagers being asleep safely in their homes. Lapis wanted nothing more than to walk down the familiar hallways and collapse into her old bed, surrounded by the familiarity of her childhood home, but before she even got the chance to tug her wife in that direction they were steered down in another direction that Lapis had rarely had the reason to venture down - to the dungeons, rarely used and more there for threats and for the sake of staying hidden than anything else.

“I’m sure you’re both very tired, but you do need to be filled in on everything that’s happened,” the small fairy - Aquamarine was her name - that was escorting them explained in a tone that was almost  _ gleeful _ , twirling her wand in one hand; the newly coronated queen assumed that was a nervous habit. “Fortunately, general life isn’t all that different from how it was ten years ago, but sadly Yellow Diamond hasn’t exactly been cooperative. Peace between all four kingdoms is under threat at the moment, and as queens you’re going to have to deal with it.”

“Great, that’s exactly what I want to do with my life,” Peridot muttered under her breath to Lapis, sarcasm dripping from her tone as she made an attempt at dry humor. The older of the two managed to scoff a little, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood to laugh or be amused at the moment, so her reaction was limited to that. The younger woman fairly quickly caught onto that, and took hold of her hand instead, giving it a light squeeze as they walked together behind the fairy.

“When did the tensions start cropping up?” Lapis asked, despite already knowing the answer. She was well aware that having her best sorceress and the arranged bride for her heiress taken away must have been a brutal blow to Yellow Diamond’s ego, and she had no doubt that all of this was her fault somehow; her fault for having an affair with Peridot behind everyone’s backs, her fault for being stupid enough to get captured on her way home, her fault for just existing in general. She knew that was an unreasonable way of thinking, but now that she had gotten started, but she couldn’t shake it.

“They’ve been there probably since rumors about your mother murdering your other parent started cropping up, but they started really getting bad after you disappeared.” Aquamarine’s words came out almost condescendingly, as if she was talking to a small child.  _ “Obviously, _ since a very valuable prisoner and the second most powerful sorceress in the yellow kingdom vanished at the same time. Everything’s been really quiet on the other side of the woods since, so we don’t know exactly what’s going on, but there’s a… a rumor going around that Yellow Diamond has been spying on her people to find out who might be plotting against the monarchy, and then proceeding to execute anybody that she even suspects might be working with the blue kingdom.” A brief look of pain appeared across her face, though she seemed to pull herself together quickly, the high and mighty expression returning. “She refuses to send any diplomats anywhere, especially now that Blue Diamond is dead, since she was the only citizen of the blue kingdom that she came even close to trusting.”

Lapis could feel her eye twitch, a frown appearing across her face. That made sense, she supposed, if a fairly terrible kind of sense; of course trust between kingdoms would be crushed if two important figures, one from each side, suddenly went away with only a stilt abandoned at the place where the enchantment holding the yellow kingdom together ended. Of course the most brutal of the four queens would resort to killing people, potentially innocent people, if she suspected any sort of treason. Of course,  _ of course _ she wouldn’t have been reasonable, wouldn’t have let anything really move forward.

She was curious about the misery Aquamarine had let appear, but didn’t question it.

“Is it possible that she might listen to me?” Peridot questioned after letting a moment of silence pass with a single glance at her wife. Lapis nodded affirmingly; she wanted to remind the younger woman that she didn’t have to ask her permission to comment on interkingdom events now. “I know that she probably won’t trust somebody that defected, but I can lie and tell her that I was kidnapped. We just need to hold off on publicly announcing that Lapis is married. Or we can say that she’s found a spouse to chase off anyone that might want to be a suitor but refrain from saying anything about my identity.”

“Too risky,” Lapis responded quickly, putting a hand on her wife’s shoulder and noticing out of the corner of her eye as Peridot’s head whipped around to let her stare at her. “You had to defeat Yellow Pearl to come and get me from the dungeon, remember? She’s probably told Yellow Diamond all about how the sorceress beat her up and took the prisoner, and considering somebody was healing me while I was down there and that magic isn’t common knowledge she probably knows the truth.”

She could see Peridot all but deflate at the answer she gave, and sighed heavily before turning her attention back to Aquamarine. “Is there a way that we could sneak past the borders of the yellow kingdom to get ahold of some information, since she isn’t going to try and talk to anybody? I know that technically walks all over international standards and everything, but we can’t just stand by and wait to see if she’s going to try and attack everybody. We need  _ some _ way to tell what’s to come.”

“We have two spies within Yellow Diamond’s ranks. It’s unnecessary. They’ve been shifting information back and forth between us and them, and once something drastic happens you’ll be the first to know, but for the moment we’re trying to keep everything calm and in order and that means not having our queen know a bunch of unneeded information.” Lapis almost expected her to roll her eyes and call her a dullard, but she apparently refrained. “I know you probably want to know everything, but for now you’ll have to take the advice of Holly Blue Agate and myself.”

The thought that the fairy might be trying to manipulate the kingdom’s decisions to fit her own wishes wriggled its way into the back of Lapis’ mind, but for the moment she shoved the thought down, choosing instead to focus on the news that there were spies in the yellow kingdom’s walls. The queen hesitated for just a moment to see if Aquamarine would elaborate further before she ended up speaking. “Who are these spies that you mentioned? It might be useful for me to know so that we don’t end up having something regrettable happening when we see them.”

“A nymph soldier of Topaz rank and a second individual that’s closer to Yellow Diamond than the rest of the army. She’s unidentified as of now to protect herself, but the information she gives is good, and I trust Topaz to not spread lies to us.” A small blush appeared across her cheeks, and the childish part of Lapis was tempted to press her - it seemed that more was going on with Topaz than what met the eye. “The pink kingdom is our closest ally at the moment. Pink Diamond died about a year ago, and Rose Quartz has been serving as leader since, but she hasn’t had the chance to be coronated yet due to some unrest in her kingdom. Some want to rush to the yellow kingdom and take over immediately, but others want to strive for peace. They’re a mess, but they’re more willing to talk and a pearl over there is getting information and relaying it to us and Rose regardless, so we haven’t tried to intervene there yet. The white kingdom is a bit aloof right now, and I think some leftover bitterness from when your parent died is preventing them from actually reaching out and trying to do something about the rest of us.”

The queen nodded slowly and let out a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose to try and chase off a headache that was beginning to form. She had really inherited a mess here, and she really wished that her mother had at least been able to calm things down so that she would have been able to put out the flames more quickly and painlessly, but she couldn’t really blame Blue Diamond. She must have done her best to try and make everything calmer. “I think Peridot and I are going to go to bed now,” she announced, knowing full well that she probably sounded impatient. “We’ve had a long journey, and this is a lot of information to process. We can get back to you with a bit of a plan in the morning.”

Her wife gently squeezed her hand, and a flare of annoyance arose in Lapis when she watched the small fairy roll her eyes. She could almost  _ hear _ the thought that they had spent ten years at rest and were now just trying to get more, but before she could open her mouth and say anything about how it was increasingly late, Aquamarine just nodded. “All right. I’m sure you remember your way around. I’ll send Blue Pearl up to wake you if you sleep too late.”

They exchanged good nights, and then the royal couple was walking away, still hand in hand. Peridot sagged a little, probably exhausted, and Lapis felt guilty about everything that her wife had been dragged through - she knew that their relationship was not entirely her fault, that their affair and everything that followed had been a mutual decision and that they were equals in their endeavors, but  _ she _ was the oldest and the one that was born into a high class, so she couldn’t help but blame herself.

“I don’t know what we’re supposed to do about this,” she groaned without really thinking about it, resting the side of her head against the top of the younger’s, sighing heavily. “We really caused a huge mess here, didn’t we?”

“The tensions have been growing for a century, Lapis, we were just the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Peridot’s response was equally exhausted but matter of fact, and the queen was grateful for her wife’s knowledgeable way of speaking. They walked together in silence until they reached the bedroom that Lapis had slept in throughout her childhood, and separated briefly to crawl underneath the covers before they clung to each other with more tightness than before.

“You know, it’s hard to believe, but way back when the kingdoms first popped up the original Diamonds were really close. Like sisters, almost. I’ve read story after story about how much the first few generations loved each other. It wasn’t until a few generations in when the white heiress suddenly closed off communications underneath there was an emergency that the fabric that held them together started to fall apart, and now there’s this huge mess everywhere.”

“I doubt that we could just remind everyone of how much we loved each other thousands of years ago and have everything be okay again, though. I wish it was that simple.” Lapis sighed heavily, her sentence punctuated with a yawn.

“Why don’t we think about it in the morning?”

She hummed in agreement, and allowed her wife to pull her a little closer.

For tonight, they were safe.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading! if you enjoyed, i would so appreciate comments.


End file.
